Hilda Downer Story Made Podcast

Our conversation this week is with Hilda Downer. She's an Appalachian poet, retired psychiatric nurse and English instructor at Appalachian State University, member of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative, and most importantly, a child of Bandana, NC. 
In this episode we talk about Hilda's love for Bandana, the mica and feldspar mines as a haven, seeing beauty in what others see as ugly, walking and tasting nature, seclusion as a reason to get together, an infinite connection through landscapes and music, poets projecting themselves into the future, finding her place at Wiley's Last Resort and SAWC, the life and legacy of Jim Webb, poets as legislators of the world, and attention as the rarest form of generosity. 
Location: Hilda's home in Sugar Grove, North Carolina
Read Hilda's work:
Wiley's Last Resort
When the Light Waits for Us
Sky Under the Roof
Bandana Creek
 
Mentioned this episode:
Groundglass by Kathryn Savage
Jim Webb
Wiley's Last Resort
Battle at Blair Mountain by Hilda Downer
Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel Literary Magazine
Mitchell County Historical Society: Bandana
Roan Highlands Ecology
The Year of My Life by Issa Kobayashi
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot
Southern Appalachian Writers Collective
Pauletta Hansel
Legislators of the World by Adrienne Rich
Mountaintop Removal 101 - Appalachian Voices
Appalshop